How do you brew yours?

[itsclinto]

Hi all,

Just thought that because it is coming up to easter and taking a pun on a creme egg, i'm just wondering how you brew yours?

I'll go first with my diy setup.  I currently do biab after moving from extract kits.  My efficiency is averaging about 67% with all grain.  I'm hoping to improve on this in time.  The brew day takes about 6-7 hours at the moment.  My equipment consists of:

• A boiler that was made from a fermenter with two cheap tesco kettle elements in it.  I recently wrapped insulation around it and the lid three times to ensure it was insulated.  I still have to see how much temperature it loses properly, as i made a mess of the last strike temperature analysis but the previous one would only lost half a degree over an hour.

• A hop strainer that i made from an ikea splash guard and two stainless steel jubilee clips that i got from Halfords.  It works surprisingly well.  As it isn't fully pieced together, it is easy to open up and clean.

• I have to sparge with about 8 litres of water because the boiler isn't big enough.  I have used a large stockpot so far but i found an unused kettle in work that i've attached to a fermenter.  I'm hoping to just dunk the bag into this for convienence.
• I use normal plastic fermenters to ferment and recently got a brew belt and a stc.  The stc was cheap and because i don't have a fridge, i use a duvet to try and control the temperature as best i can.  It was two duvets and two woolen blankets to try and keep the temperature high.

• Lastly i use bottles, no kegs yet.

My list of hopes:

• To get a grain mill.  I buy my grain crushed at the moment but i'm hoping that a grain mill will increase my efficiency somewhat.
• Down the line a fridge for fermenting would be a dream.  And maybe a kegerator. 
• Start getting into freezing yeast so i can have a range of strains to use at the drop of a hap and to keep costs down.

[helmet]

Looking good Niall!
My gear's up for viewing on another thread, I've switched over to a ss boiler, but other than that everything's the same.

[cronan]

My gear in all its glory:

Corona Mill with drill

Keggle with 2 Argos elements and a hop blocker- splash guard from Homestore and more. This setup will leave very little wort behind as dip tube goes to centre of Keg.

[helmet]

Have you had any bother with drills burning out on you?

[cronan]

No its not much strain on the drill but it spins at too high rpm.
I would like a slower one.

[itsclinto]

I've switched over to a ss boiler, but other than that everything's the same.

Have you christened the boiler yet?  If so, how are you finding it?

This setup will leave very little wort behind as dip tube goes to centre of Keg.

Cronan is that a thermowell in the side of the keggle or do you just use a thermometer yourself?  Always wondered if there would be a benefit to using a thermowell.

[helmet]

I gave it a test drive with 25l of water, just to make sure there's no leaks. Worked well, came to the boil pretty quickly on the gas hob!

[cronan]

Yeah its a thermowell, I am not a fan of them I rather just use a thermometer as its more accurate.

[danger_zone]

I'm hoping to get a brew on over the weekend so i'll get some pics of my gear up then. Its pretty much the same as Clinto's. The hop strainer is a great idea, I really need to do that. I never calculated my efficiency but my targets always seem to be bang on so I must be doing something right